• Wednesday-What'sUP March 10 - 04:23 pm

One of my earliest memories of the Copper Country was the big billboard past the old Onigaming Supper Club, on your way in to Houghton back in the 60's. ("You are now breathing the purest, most vitalizing air on Earth!") The old billboard has long since disappeared, but as you round the turn headed north you are greeted by the handsome new stone sign in the top photo, announcing the Nara Nature Park. During the sunny afternoon yesterday, I stopped at the new Chalet and took these pictures with my cell phone.

What a great facility to anchor the world-class cross country ski trails the Nara's have developed, along with MTU, which stretch from this spot - the old home of the Copper Country Humane Society - all the way back to the Tech Campus. Speaking of CCHS, the Nara's helped provide a new home for the animals a few years back, just a few hundred feet back in the woods near this spot. In the bottom photo above, the couple in the picture on the wall by the door is Bob and Ruth Nara themselves. Last night Edie and I ran into them at the presentation in Calumet, inaugurating the traveling display of J.W. Nara's photography (Bob's grandfather) at the library. What a mountain of wonderful things Bob and Ruth have done for the Copper Country.

Don't forget to vote today in The Shelter Challenge, and help CCHS continue to climb in the competition for a $10,000 grant to be announced in April.

In case you haven't checked lately, the CCHS has risen from fifth place yesterday, to fourth place today.

Keep the pressure on!

Yes...the Nara's have definitely left their mark on the Copper Country. Thank you all! Blessings!

And yes...VOTE, VOTE, VOTE...once a day per computer!!! CCHS is now number FOUR!!! This is so amazing!!! Keep up the FANTASTIC job Team Pasty!!! Let's get up to Number ONE....and WE can do it!!!
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_shelterchallenge_from_shelterchallengeconfirmation_sidetabs

Rock that Vote! High fives from the critters you are all helping so much!

I haven't even seen this! What's up with that? Nice pictures!

ETHICS: What you do when no one is looking...VOTE

Onigaminkway??

LOL, Red, I thought the same thing. I used to swim there growing up in the CC.

I remember having dinner at the Onigamink (I don't remember the "way" part), the night I graduated from Hancock High School. It was a big deal!

In my first post above I inadvertently called it the "Onagomingkway" supper club. Actually, it was the Onigaming Supper Club. Years later, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution adopted the name Onagomingkway, which you can read about here. Over the years, these details seem to all run together.

Now, what were we talking about?

They are a little bit on the large size, but look at all the good sauna rocks wasted on that fireplace!! Maybe get that fire going real hot, throw some water on the rocks, instant sauna, know what I am saying? Love the benches, tables, and woodwork, too: Plain and simple to let the natural beauty of the wood shine through. It looks to me like pine. Was it harvested on-site or nearby? I seem to remember some nice White Pine trees growing near that area.

Thanks, Charlie. Had never heard of the "Onagomingkway" ... learned something new; appreciate that. It was the Onigaming Supper Club all the time I lived in Houghton.

Kind of like Chicago, "Vote early! Vote often! Vote for your dead friends!"

'Tis nice to see the Nara Nature Park.
Such a fitting use for the property where Jack Nara's Animal Hospital/Veterinary Clinic stood fifty years ago. Hurrrah to cousin (Dr.) Bob (the best dentist on the planet) and Ruth Nara for the mountain of wonderful things they have done for the Copper Country (as Charlie said above)!

Nice building! Love the fireplace and all of the natural wood. It's an "interpretive center," so what does this mean exactly? Will they have little interpretive nature exhibits in there? Will it be like an environmental education center? Or is it purely just for people to get information about the trails?

Go CCHS!! Woo-hoo! I'm just thrilled that they're #4 today!

It's just knowing that there are people like Bob and Ruth Nara out there that makes me feel good. Hats off to Bob and Ruth for the many wonderful things that they have done for the area.

Charlie:
I was wondering if today's "Day in History" was inspired by the television show I saw on Public TV last night. The show was a discussion/debate on the topic of the value of paper money and allowing banks have control over our currency. Rather alarming actually...

I'd like to echo what Charlie and a number of the other posters have said today about Bob and Ruth Nara. Always, always willing to help out the community and make it a better place to live. Not only that, but they make you feel like you've known them forever, even if you just met them. The phrase I heard my grandparents use many times, comes to mind when I think of these two folks...GOOD PEOPLE!
The Copper Country is a better place because of folks like them...

I like the stone fireplace. My wife and I have one, 2.

My sixth grade teacher at Mass-Greenland Elementary School back in 1969 was Aune Nara. I wonder if she was related to the Naras mentioned here. She was one of my favorite elementary school teachers.

Go Chicago! :D

Cindy Pihlaja Russell (Gone2long):
"My sixth grade teacher at Mass-Greenland Elementary School back in 1969 was Aune Nara. I wonder if she was related to the Naras mentioned here."
I don't recall ever meeting or hearing of an Aune Nara, but it's a pretty big family. I also have never found a Nara in the U.P. that was not a relative! I'll do some research and get back to you.

I have to ditto the Nara's and their involvement. Bob likes to call it "catalyst philanthropy" by giving a little bit of money here and there, and asking others to get on board with projects. The Michigan Tech Archives has been fortunate to receive their support, initially for some digitization equipment to help get our Keweenaw Digital Archives up and running at: http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/

More recently, the Naras helped fund a traveling exhibit of historical photographs from Bob's grandfather, J.W. Nara. If you haven't yet seen the exhibit, be sure to visit the CLK Public School Library at Calumet High School before March 22.

Here's a link to the info about the exhibit installation in Calumet:
http://blogs.mtu.edu/archives/2010/02/27/archives-exhibit-travels-to-calumet/

We were able to take the content of the exhibit and turn it into a website, too:
http://www.lib.mtu.edu/mtuarchives/exhibits/Nara/index.html

Be sure to check out the "Host the Traveling Exhibit" part of this site, which is particularly cool. It includes a place you can download the little exhibit catalog with the cutout postcards.

Hey Charlie:
Is this the sign you were thinking of:
http://digarch.lib.mtu.edu/showbib.aspx?bib_id=661369#
"Welcome to the Copper Country - You are now breathing the purest, most vitalizing air on earth!"
(not sure how to cut and paste the image into this posting directly)

Thanks, Erik. The sign first appeared on the Pasty Cam in 2001, a copy we had received from a couple associated with the Copper Country Vacationist League. This is the one up near the airport. We are still looking for the billboard that was by the Onigaming Club.

When Bob N. was still in high school he made an arrangement that would turn on the light in the morning when the alarm clock went off. It was a wind up alarm clock at the heart of the mechanism. His Dad was quite proud of him for inventing that device. --Little known trivia from the C.C.--

Cindy Pihlaja Russell (Gone2long):
"My sixth grade teacher at Mass-Greenland Elementary School back in 1969 was Aune Nara. I wonder if she was related to the Naras mentioned here."

My research reveals that of course Aune Nara definitely was related...

There was a bunch of Naras in Mass City: Charles, Edward and Ike were my maternal grandfather's cousins; some of them did stop by to visit at granddad's farm in Bruce Crossing. One of more of them owned a grocery store in Mass City. There could have been several more Naras there too, but I never knew them, As near as we can tell, Aune was perhaps Charles Jr's wife.

For reference, my maternal grandfather was Frank Nara (a.k.a. Frans Emil Närä), who was a brother of the photographer, J. W. Nara (a.k.a. J. William Närä) of Bootjack.

The exact relationship is still a bit of a mystery to me. So it goes with such a huge family!

In fact, although I know for a fact that my mom & dad's families are remotely related, I'm still trying to identify exactly how. I know there was some kind of connection between J.W. Nara's wife, Mary (Maria) Piehi and Minnie Olson (nee Piehi?) and my paternal grandmother, Olga Nakkula (nee Olson?) It makes my head hurt!